TITLE: “The Three-Fold Work of the Holy Spirit”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.   Our text for Confirmation Sunday is from the Gospel lesson just read, with focus on the words of Jesus, When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.  Let us pray:

Our merciful Father, the God who alone make minds of the faithful to be of one will, cause Your people to love what You command and to desire what You promise, that among the manifold changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.[1]

Truth.  It’s almost a dirty word in our world today.  How can I come to know the truth?  What if my truth is different from someone else’s truth?  Eric has spent the last two years studying God’s Word through the lens of the Small Catechism.  His study was probably very similar to what many of you went through when you were his age.  We have studied God’s Word, looked at the Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer and the Sacraments.

In this study and prayer one thing is clear: there is no way that we can know it all.  There is no way that Eric or any of us can stand on our own and say, “I now know all that there is to know about God’s Word.”  If we were to do this, we would be lying.

Yet in just a few minutes Eric will stand before God and this congregation and will vow with the help of God to hold fast to the doctrine and practice of the Lutheran Church, even to the very point of death.  We prayed that our Lord would make His church of one will, and so God is fulfilling his promise today.  Now that’s serious business.  Eric is saying that he would rather die than give up the doctrine that He has been taught from God’s Word.

How can we make such a claim?  How do we know that this is the truth of God’s Word?  We know these things because of Jesus’ promise: When He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth.  Jesus promised, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Holy Spirit would come and would guide us into all truth.  Jesus doesn’t lie, my friends.  He goes even further on to say that it is to our advantage that He goes away.  It’s good for us that Jesus ascended into heaven!  Why?  Because He then sent the Holy Spirit to teach us everything He received from the Father and from Jesus Christ, His Son.  So instead of Jesus’ one voice in Galilee, the message of the Gospel has spread from the lips of preachers throughout the whole world!

So what is the message of the Holy Spirit?  What is His task?  Jesus says in our text that the Holy Spirit comes into the world to do three things: to convict or convince the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.  So let’s unpack these three things, and they will give us a picture of what it means to be a Christian.

…[The Holy Spirit will convict the world] of sin, because they do not believe in Me.  It may come as a surprise to some, but we are not automatically made Christians.  There are many people in the world who do not believe in Christ.  There are many people in the world that do not believe they are sinners that need the Gospel.  So the work of the Holy Spirit is first of all to preach the Law.  What does the Law do?  It shows us our sin.  It kills us.  It brings to light our miserable nature as sons and daughters of the devil.  But we won’t come to know this on our own.  Somebody has to teach this to us.  So the Holy Spirit uses God’s Law to kill us and condemn us for our unbelief.

Second, …[He will convict the world] of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.  This isn’t just talking about Jesus Ascension into heaven.  Jesus went back to His father triumphant over Satan.  He went back to the Father because He rose from the dead!  So when He goes to the Father, He goes and presents you spotless and whole, perfect because of Christ’s righteousness.  In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit is to preach the Gospel.  The Holy Spirit comes to convince you that you are righteous and holy for Jesus’ sake.  It is the simplest message in all the world, and yet it is this message of God’s love for lost sinners that takes a lifetime to learn.  And we can only know this message of God’s love in Jesus because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, …[the Holy Spirit will convict the world] of judgment, because of the ruler of this world is judged.  Because of Jesus work on the cross and in the empty tomb, Satan has no more dominion over you.  Again, we can only know this because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, because it is certain we would never believe it on our own.  Think of the temptations that you face every day.  Sin, death and the devil attack you as a Christian all the time.   Without the Holy Spirit, you would be lost and alone.  But you aren’t lost and alone.  The Holy Spirit comes to you and forgives your sins, and because of that Satan has no power over you.  There is nothing He can do to harm you.  This is great news!  Who would believe that God’s Word and the Holy Spirit would have so much to give to this lost and condemned world?  But give it they do.

Eric, we have spent a lot of time and energy talking about these things the last couple years.  Being a Christian is not easy.  There will be times in your life when it will be hard, very hard.  There will be times when you will be tempted to allow work, or sports or recreation or any of a thousand other things to draw you away from Christ and His Church.  You can’t go it alone.  You family stands with you today to pray for you and walk with you in this journey.  Your sponsors are here.  They witnessed God’s Holy Spirit coming to you through water and Word about thirteen years ago.  The whole Church here prays for you, that you will hold fast to Christ’s Word of Truth.

But none of them can do a thing for you apart from Christ.  Not even your promise can save you.  Only Jesus can hold your faith together and bring you to himself in Heaven.  But have no fear, Eric!  Jesus will do this.  I will never leave you nor forsake you.  That is his promise to you.  That is His promise that He gave to you when Pastor Gundlach said, Eric Daniel Snodgrass, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  From this font, Eric, God’s Word was planted into your soul.  So today you say AMEN to God’s work for you and in you.  But the work is God’s, and His alone.  For He alone will keep you and hold you in this faith and life, both now, and for all eternity.

In some ways I guess you could call the Christian Church your spiritual mother that has nurtured you and kept you in God’s Word throughout your life.  The Christian Church is where the three-fold work of the Holy Spirit takes place for you and for all of us again and again and again.  So welcome home, Eric.  We close with the words from Jude that Dr. Alvin Barry, the sainted president of the Missouri Synod, would close all of his letters and sermons with.  The words seem appropriate for you, Eric, as they are appropriate for us all:

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever.   Amen. (Jude 24-24 NKJV)

The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting.  Amen.

Copyright © 2001 by Todd A. Peperkorn.  All rights reserved.